<< Front page Commentary April 23, 2004

Language material round-up for Lorain County

To the Editors:

I am a library intern at a corrections institution in Lorain County. I would like to ask members of the College and community to look through their shelves for books they aren’t using that are by and about black men and women and/or the black community, of general minority interest or in the Spanish language.

The library relies on donations, which has led to a somewhat incidental collection that doesn’t proportionally reflect all of the varied voices and needs of the population.

The only way to really combat this is to actively seek donations from individuals — one, two books at a time — that specifically meet this criteria.

The need for Spanish language materials is particularly urgent. Dictionaries, novels, textbooks, magazines — any material in Spanish, for native or non-native speakers, would be greatly appreciated. Books for Spanish-speakers about speaking English as a second language would also be helpful.

Spanish is the native language of a growing percentage of the inmates, yet there are less than a dozen books in the Spanish section of the library and many of them are about how to learn Spanish (these are in high demand as well).

Without enough dictionaries, some inmates have trouble communicating their needs to the staff or understanding policies, access to resources, etc.

This week I was able to bring in a few Spanish dictionaries, textbooks and novels — one dictionary didn’t even have a cover, and there was a waiting list for it within hours. The same was true of Wright’s Black Boy and Walker’s The Color Purple.

All libraries should have collections that reflect the needs and interests of the populations they serve — I am hoping to ultimately add 50-75 of these books to the stacks, which is about what the shelf space will allow.

If you have any books at all (even one) for these collections, please bring them to Mudd Library where there will be a donation box, or contact me by email if that is not possible (ghammond@oberlin.edu) and we can arrange a pick-up.

Thank you so much. I know that the books I took in meant a lot to the individuals who checked them out and that they will be widely circulated.

They were just sitting on my shelf and they are worth so much more where they will be used every day. We are very lucky in Oberlin to have access to the diverse resources offered at the Oberlin Public Library, the Bridge and the many libraries of Oberlin College — it is a good thing to do what we can to help diversify collections in libraries where neither the patrons nor the staff often get the option to pick and choose.

–Grace Hammond
College senior


 
 
   

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